State group to pay $75,000 for detaining volunteers, children at Almost Heaven Kennel.

Almost Heaven Kennel workers who claimed they were held illegally in a 2008 raid by Pennsylvania SPCA officers have settled their federal lawsuit against the humane society for $75,000, according to court documents.

The suit, filed in September, claimed officers of the state Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals swarmed the kennel on Chestnut Street in Upper Milford Township and detained the plaintiffs, including four children, for up to nine hours.

According to the settlement agreement approved Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry S. Perkin, the four minors, who are children of kennel employees and volunteers, will each receive $3,423. The other plaintiffs, who include kennel owner Bryan Smith; the children's mothers, Donna Dotterer, April Welter and Sondra Finley; and five other kennel workers will equally divide $30,807.

The plaintiffs' law firm, Clymer, Musser, Brown & Conrad in Lancaster, will receive $30,501. Emily M. Bell, who represented the plaintiffs, did not return a phone call Friday. Attorney Christopher Boyle, who represented the PSPCA, a nonprofit group, could not be reached for comment.

More than 60 dead animals and 100 other animals living in filth were found during the surprise raid Oct. 1, 2008. The kennel was later closed after a 2009 raid and operator Derbe "Skip" Eckhart was convicted of two counts of animal cruelty. He was sentenced in May 2010 to six to 23 months in prison. Eckhart, who was not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was also fined nearly $153,000 by the state.

According to the lawsuit, nearly two dozen PSPCA officers and agents descended on the kennel and rounded up the employees, volunteers and children. They were confined to a filthy 10-foot-square foyer that an agent testified had the worst stench she had ever encountered.

Later, the workers and children were moved from the foyer to a small courtyard. As the evening wore on and the temperature dropped, the officers denied requests for warm clothes for the children, the suit said. The suit also claimed those detained by the officers were denied access to food and water.

Court documents note that none of the children was injured or incurred medical expenses. The settlement will be covered by PSPCA's liability insurance police, according to court papers.